For most parents the minimum expectation is to be able to raise a healthy child without much struggle, save for the myriad of tantrums during the terrible twos and the terrifying prospect of impending teenage years.
Unfortunately this isn’t the case for one Manchester mum who has to cope with having a sick child every day despite working full time.
Penny Higgins, 41, is mum to six-year-old Eva, who suffers from cystic fibrosis (CF) – a life-altering genetic condition which affects the respiratory system and can lead to early death, with the average life expectancy currently under 40.
Yet Penny, from Flixton, is doing her best to demonstrate how even an illness such as CF won’t prevent Eva from having a full and active life.
Last weekend Penny took part in the Great Manchester Swim in Salford Quays to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and collected around £800 for the charity.
For Penny, doing the open-water swim with more than 2,000 other fundraisers, was all about showing her daughter how she can channel her illness into something positive.
“One of the things with having CF is that Eva needs regular aerobic exercise, so she’s been swimming all her life,” Penny said.
“It’s about showing her the constant pressure we have to put on her to carry on doing these activities to a level that’s higher than most six-year-olds would need to do.
“It’s also about trying to take away the stress from that exercise from her and making it look like its fun and something she does for her own benefit as well as because she has the disease.”
Penny, who also has a healthy eight-year-old son Abel, is unable to do much outside of her job at Wigan Council and taking care of her children because of the time it takes.
Eva has to undertake a hefty regime of exercise and treatment every morning and evening, lasting between 30 minutes and an hour.
She often has to have IV lines inserted into her arm, even at school and must take a variety of pills – sometimes up to 40 a day.
Aside from swimming, Eva also takes part in dance and gymnastics with her teachers aware they need to make the most out of her sessions.
Penny, who used to swim for Essex as a teenager but had done no swimming since she was 19, took part in the Great Manchester Swim last year but admitted she hadn’t enjoyed it.
“I found it quite hard because I didn’t know what it was going to be like – I had to wear a wetsuit and kept saying ‘oh my God, what are you doing?’” she explained.
“This year I wanted to go back and not be nervous and anxious about it.”
Just as Eva is making the most out of her illness, so too did they make the most out of their fun day out in Salford.
She said: “We watched the races beforehand and made a little banner, and anyone we saw with a CF t-shirt on we went up and talked to.”
Penny completed the swim in 29 minutes, finishing an impressive 503rd out of 2,154 men and women, and 137th out of the women competitors.
She was full of admiration for the way Eva has dealt with having CF, insisting her daughter – not her – is the real hero.
She said: “It’s my job to be her parent so whatever that comes with, I have to do.
“If anything the fact that she gets up every day and puts herself through all that just like it’s another day, and then goes and excels at these sports, makes her a hero.”
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